By ISU Sports Information
NORMAL- The Illinois State men’s basketball team led wire-to-wire in its 75-60 victory over Bradley Sunday afternoon on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena. The win for the Redbirds completed the season sweep of Bradley and stretched their winning streak against the Braves to five games, and their winning streak overall to four games.
The Redbirds’ 54.8 percent (23-for-42) shooting from the floor is their second highest shooting percentage on the season. ISU’s defense tied the second most steals on the season with nine against Bradley. Illinois State (16-11, 10-4) also scored 16 points off of 18 Bradley (4-23, 2-12) turnovers.
MiKyle McIntosh led a quartet of Redbirds with double-digit points, scoring 14 thanks to 9-of-11 shooting from the line. Devaughn Akoon-Purcell did the bulk of his scoring in the first half, dropping in 12 of his 13 points in the first 20 minutes. Bradley’s Ronnie Suggs led all scorers with 16 points, 11 of which came in the second half.
To start the game, the Redbird defense forced a shot-clock violation on the opening possession, and Akoon-Purcell scored first for ISU with a jump hook on the other end of the floor. The Redbirds never trailed from that point on. ISU’s defense continued to pressure Bradley into turning the ball over three times in the first four minutes, which allowed the Redbirds to jump out to an 8-3 lead.
The Braves went scoreless for nearly four minutes to begin the game, but they caught fire from behind the arc, making three 3-pointers during a three-minute stretch. Bradley’s hot shooting didn’t slow down the Redbird offense as ISU maintained a 17-9 lead.
At the 10-minute mark of the first half, the Braves made two more treys during a 10-3 run cutting ISU’s lead to 22-19. Akoon-Purcell responded with a mini 5-0 run of his own, and after a Paris Lee jumper and a McIntosh layup, the Redbirds lead was back to nine points with 3:36 remaining the half. Minutes later, Justin McCloud nailed a three to give ISU a 37-24 lead. On the Redbirds’ final possession of the half, Lee drove the lane and twisted through two defenders for the layup.
At the break, the Redbirds led the Braves 39-26, which is the largest halftime lead for ISU this season. Akoon-Purcell led all scorers with 12 points at the half. ISU’s defense forced 13 turnovers and converted those into 10 points. The Redbirds did a good job of getting to the charity stripe in the opening half, shooting 9-for-11 from the free throw line. Bradley’s first half 3-point shooting kept the game close, the Braves went 6-for-12 from deep.
On their first two possessions of the second half, the Braves scored on a Donte Thomas layup and a Suggs jumper, forcing Dan Muller to call a timeout one minute into the half. Out of the timeout, ISU turned the ball over, which led to another Suggs’ jumper. After Bradley’s Luuk Van Bree converted an and-one, the Braves’ run extended to nine-straight points and cut the Redbird lead to 39-34. At the 17:03 mark, Tony Wills made a layup to end the Redbird drought.
After a Suggs’ 3-pointer, Bradley trailed by just one. Suggs scored nine of the Braves first 16 points in the second half. With 14:21 remaining, McCloud drilled a three, sparking an 11-2 run for the Redbirds.
Then, with just over eight minutes to play, McIntosh drove baseline, made a reverse layup while being fouled and completed the three-point play at the line. That play gave the Redbirds a 60-49 lead with 8:27 remaining. A Wills 3-pointer gave ISU its largest lead of the game, 73-57, with 2:03 remaining. During the final four minutes of the game, ISU held Bradley to just five points. That stretch of play cemented the Redbirds fourth straight victory after dispatching the Braves, 75-60.
The Redbirds will look to continue their four-game winning streak against Indiana State Wednesday, Feb. 17 on Doug Collins Court at Redbird Arena. That game is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. CT.
